On a clear day, he can see the Tetons

It's an eight-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job. It lasts throughoutthe summer. And on any given day, former Holden Fire Chief Ed Starkmight be tracking a fire that could burn thousands of acres, a greatresponsibility.

And he couldn't love it more.

"Everybody says I'm smiling a lot now," Stark says.

Though Stark liked being fire chief, he also liked the parks out westthat he'd visited on vacations. He'd hiked in many of the Rocky Mountainparks, loved the experience, and always told folks if an opportunityarose in one of the national parks he'd retire and head there.

"People who knew me knew I wasn't kidding," he says.When a job opened up in 2006 for a firefighter to watch for fires fromthe top of Mt. Washburn at Yellowstone National Park, Stark jumped atthe chance and retired.

Mama grizzly may seem unaware of Stark's presence, but she's carefully leading her three curious cubs away from danger. Stark says this is the closest he's been so far. Now he spends every day from the middle of June to the middle ofSeptember in the lookout atop a mountain in the north-central part ofYellowstone, watching for that telltale puff of smoke, and alerting firefightersbelow.

Stark readily admits he enjoys the fact that he doesn't have to godown and fight the fire himself. Crews are often flown into remote areasto battle a fire, sometimes lowered into the site by helicopter. Sometimesthe "burns" are allowed to happen, a method that has becomepopular in recent years because it lets nature do its job. Certain speciesrequire fires to regenerate, and fires can help wipe out pests likethe pine bark beetle.

Fire in the distance (above) - or close up - is what Stark is there to watch for. Much of the time he can also enjoy the wildlife below). Most of the fires are ignited by lightning in an area where lightning storms are common, Stark says.

After about the middle of September, there's no need to watch for fires anymore. That's when the snow begins.

Stark recalls one year when the snow fell sooner than usual, and a plow had to be sent in to get him out.

He is one of three firefighters assigned to watch for fires from three tall peaks in the 2.2 million-acre park. The other two peaks, Mt. Sheridan and Mt. Holmes, are in the southern and northwest parts of the park, respectively.

Stark's area of the park probably sees less tourist activity since it's not close to the geysers (like Old Faithful) for which the park is famous and there is no lodging right around Mt. Washburn. But daily he will still see 200 to 300 visitors who hike the thousand feet up to where he's stationed.

Mt. Washburn is 10,243 feet high, but hikers are coming up from the mountain plateau of 7,000 to 8,000 feet that encompasses most of Yellowstone.

And when the weather is clear, one can see all the way south to the Grand Tetons. The range is a full 80 miles away across this huge park that occupies the northwest corner of Wyoming, and spills over a little into Montana in the north and Idaho in the west.

What Stark loves about Yellowstone is what many folks who explore beyond Old Faithful come to love.

"It's probably one of the most diverse national parks," he says. "It's got more variety - mountains, wildlife, waterfalls, geysers."

And mild temperatures. At such a high altitude there are few summer days that top 80. Most of the days are in the 60s and 70s and the nights are pleasantly cool.

As for wildlife, Stark sees mostly bears and bighorn sheep, though the park offers just about everything else: bison, wolves, elk. moose and all the littler critters as well.

'Hey, bear!'

The bears, though, are what Yellowstone is famous (or infamous) for. Stark keeps in mind a healthy respect for the black and grizzly bears in the park, yelling, "Hey bear," as he hikes in areas where he's sure they can't see him around the bend, and where there's no other human activity to alert them. It's risky to startle a bear.

"I want to make sure they hear me," he says. "I've been closer to a bear than I wanted to on at least one occasion."

It was the really dangerous kind of bear as well, a female with cubs to protect, just 25 yards away.

On that occasion, in spite of his fear, Stark took the time to take a pretty spectacular photograph. He confesses it's not as carefully crafted a shot as it might have been - for obvious reasons.

His advice to tourists is to pay attention, make a lot of noise on the hiking paths, don't feed the animals, and don't do anything stupid, like get too close or stick around too long when it's clear an animal isn't happy about your presence.

Stark has heard abouit bear attacks in the park, but fewer than one might expect. People are more likely to be hurt by the bison in the park, who appear docile but will charge if tourists get too close.

From his lookout, Stark does see where the bear activity is centered, and sometimes that means posting a sign on trails to keep some of the more than three million visitors who come to Yellowstone each summer off a trail that the bears are finding attractive.

"It depends on where they're moving and what they're doing," he says.

Later in the summer, the bears might be in a particular area to prepare to move into their dens or to find food to bulk up for the winter. Early in the season they might be following food, mostly fish, to recover from a long winter.

Yellowstone is not only famous for its wildlife and its crowds, but for what happens when the two meet: unwitting tourists feeding the wildlife or looking for a chance to pet or photograph a wild animal have endangered themselves and the animals. Some animals have become accustomed to human beings, a perilous situation, because no matter how docile they may seem they are still wild.

The first season, Stark recalls, he saw only one bear, and thought his position was pretty safe. The next season brought more sightings. Wildlife activity is unpredictable.

Alone at the top

In Yellowstone, in spite of the crowds flocking to Old Faithful, it's actually not as hard as one might expect to find solitude - you just have to veer off the beaten path. Stark does get time to do some hiking, in spite of working seven days a week all summer. He's on the job from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is able hike when he's not on duty. "I get the best of both possible worlds," he says. "I get the visitors in the daytime and peace and solitude in the evening."

Early morning and evening hikes have given Stark a chance to practice a skill he knew he'd have to master if he took this job: digital photography.

He's been able to capture spectacular sunrises and sunsets that, to him, encapsulate the beauty of the view from his summer job.

"That's what it's all about."

For more information about YellowstoneNational Park visit www.nps.gov/yell. Toget a feel for Stark's quarters at Yellowstone,go to www.nps.gov/archive/yell/features/vr/firelookout.htm. For informationabout firefighting at Yellowstone, visit www.nps.gov/archive/yell/insideyellowstone/0029afirelookouts.htm or www.nps.gov/yell/parkmgmt/firemanagement.htm.